Well, I was sound asleep when I was awakened by the loud sound of a fog horn blowing. I rolled over in bed and looked at the clock and it said 1:00AM. It was a cruise ship coming into the Ketchican Harbor and heavy fog had rolled in so they are required to blow their fog horn every so many minutes as they come in. I was told in the morning, because of the density of the fog, that they had to blow it every 2 minutes. It wasn't a very restful night of sleep for me because of that. They had, I think, 6 or 7 cruise ship come in that night and morning.
One of the fellows on the trip is a really enthusiastic fisherman and he told me he was trying to line up a fishing charter to take a few of us out fishing. David and I and two others decided to partake in a little Salmon fishing. They picked us up fairly early at about6:45, so with the fog horns and early start we didn't get a lot of sleep.
It was overcast and drizzling so we needed sweatshirts and jackets to go out into the bay fishing. We finished up fishing at about 11:30 and it rained off and on most of the time and was a little chilly out there. The fish weren't biting really good but we were able to catch a few nice salmons. We were in a rotation of sort for when a fish got on the line and I had a fish on twice and somehow let it get loose so I think they were going to kick me out of rotation but I finally hauled one in. I think we ended up keeping about four and catching about 6 or 7. The others were too small so we had to turn them loose.
When we got back onto land we headed to the hotel and up to the room to clean up and get ready for the afternoon. The window in our room had a crank type handle that cranked the window in and out and it wasn't working and the window was open. The room was a little cold so in my wisdom, I decided I would reach out and grab the window and flip it back in to close it. Good idea but bad execution. When I flipped it back in I didn't get my hand out of the way quick enough and did some pretty good damage to the tip of my middle finger on my right hand and the finger nail. The window closed on it and put a pretty good gash in it. There was a doctor in our group whom I looked up and asked him if he felt I needed ot go to the hospital with it and he thought I should, so I ended up spending the bulk of the afternoon waiting in the emergency room for a doctor to help me. Nice way to spend a day.
I made it back in time to go with the group on a fairly long bus ride to a place called George Inlet Lodge, where we were going to have a crab fest dinner. They took us out on a pontoon type boat and showed us the crab pots they use to trap the crabs and explained how you tell the difference between the male and females and what size they have to be before you can keep them. They only eat the males, which seemed to me to be a little sexist and discriminating to say the least :>} It was still a little overcast and chilly out on the boat.
We boated back into the restaurant at the lodge and had a very large dinner of all the crab you could eat. There was a contest to see which table could eat the most crabs and make the highest pile of crab shells. You will see from the photos some of the people cheated a little :>} Because of my finger being a little tender I opted out of opening the crab shells and had chicken instead but Barb was kind enough to take some out of the shell for me so I did get a taste of it, which was very good.
We left a little late, actually it was hard to keep track of time because it's not getting dark up here right now, and on the way back we saw some Bald Eagles and a few bears right down near the river in the city.
This is our last night to be in the group, tomorrow we will begin our trek back down to the lower 48. We planned on flying from Ketchican direct to Bellingham, WA, thus avoiding a Canadian and US Customs stop.
Wayne
One of the fellows on the trip is a really enthusiastic fisherman and he told me he was trying to line up a fishing charter to take a few of us out fishing. David and I and two others decided to partake in a little Salmon fishing. They picked us up fairly early at about6:45, so with the fog horns and early start we didn't get a lot of sleep.
It was overcast and drizzling so we needed sweatshirts and jackets to go out into the bay fishing. We finished up fishing at about 11:30 and it rained off and on most of the time and was a little chilly out there. The fish weren't biting really good but we were able to catch a few nice salmons. We were in a rotation of sort for when a fish got on the line and I had a fish on twice and somehow let it get loose so I think they were going to kick me out of rotation but I finally hauled one in. I think we ended up keeping about four and catching about 6 or 7. The others were too small so we had to turn them loose.
When we got back onto land we headed to the hotel and up to the room to clean up and get ready for the afternoon. The window in our room had a crank type handle that cranked the window in and out and it wasn't working and the window was open. The room was a little cold so in my wisdom, I decided I would reach out and grab the window and flip it back in to close it. Good idea but bad execution. When I flipped it back in I didn't get my hand out of the way quick enough and did some pretty good damage to the tip of my middle finger on my right hand and the finger nail. The window closed on it and put a pretty good gash in it. There was a doctor in our group whom I looked up and asked him if he felt I needed ot go to the hospital with it and he thought I should, so I ended up spending the bulk of the afternoon waiting in the emergency room for a doctor to help me. Nice way to spend a day.
I made it back in time to go with the group on a fairly long bus ride to a place called George Inlet Lodge, where we were going to have a crab fest dinner. They took us out on a pontoon type boat and showed us the crab pots they use to trap the crabs and explained how you tell the difference between the male and females and what size they have to be before you can keep them. They only eat the males, which seemed to me to be a little sexist and discriminating to say the least :>} It was still a little overcast and chilly out on the boat.
We boated back into the restaurant at the lodge and had a very large dinner of all the crab you could eat. There was a contest to see which table could eat the most crabs and make the highest pile of crab shells. You will see from the photos some of the people cheated a little :>} Because of my finger being a little tender I opted out of opening the crab shells and had chicken instead but Barb was kind enough to take some out of the shell for me so I did get a taste of it, which was very good.
We left a little late, actually it was hard to keep track of time because it's not getting dark up here right now, and on the way back we saw some Bald Eagles and a few bears right down near the river in the city.
This is our last night to be in the group, tomorrow we will begin our trek back down to the lower 48. We planned on flying from Ketchican direct to Bellingham, WA, thus avoiding a Canadian and US Customs stop.
Wayne
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